Aplaya
by syaoran no hime
Summary: Platonic bond? Tomoyo doesn't see Eriol that way, but that is about to change when they hang out by the seaside aplaya and talk. English, scenes tamed.


This is the ratings-friendly version of my Taglish lime. Basically the same plot, but different ending of course, and is in English ^^

Of course, the last thing Daidouji Tomoyo would want to do is to sit down quietly in front of her best friend, Hiiragizawa Eriol, and pretend that she was super concerned about the latest marshmallow in the rocky road relationship of the Romeo and Juliet of Tomoeda town. But what benefits does she get from listening to the endless complaints of the Big Ben-native young man about…well, everything, actually. 

Ranging from the lack of response of Mizuki Kaho to his kisses up to his concerns that with his age of twenty-nine, he still had not experienced what Kinomoto Touya, Classmate Yamazaki, and even Li Syaoran, did with their respective partners. 

And of course, he made her his audio punch bag for his fretting. Part of the pains of being a best friend to someone with a pathetic love life like him.

"Daidouji-san, I'm worried. I'm just in the process of touching her and she would immediately flee already," said he, his pacific blue eyes viewing the open pacific sea the color of his eyes too. 

She adjusted her seat on the sand. The beach was their hang-out because this was the only place in Tomoeda where his mind could be pacified…and this was the only place where it was free to hang out. "Well, have you tried putting on a deodorant before you approached her? Or did you wash your hands after eating when you tried to hold her? If you didn't then it's only right that she avoids you--" 

"Silly girl!" He rolled his eyes. "I'm serious. I wonder…there really must be something wrong with our relationship…"

"Oh no, that is just a figment of your imagination," she said sarcastically. "How can something go wrong with your perfect relationship when the age gap between you two is two decades and a half, not to mention that you want to make 'it' happy just when her menopause is approaching?"

He sighed audibly. "I know. We do have  a lot of issues…and I'm considering breaking up with her already."

"Oh, please don't!" she cried in mock horror. "There's still hope for you two! Well, I can't guarantee anything though when it comes to the 'Big O'." She emphasized the O fully.

He burst out laughing. "I'm not only talking about bed. I mean…" His eyes saddened. "I thought we were compatible. But as months pass, I'm finding it more and more difficult to live with her. And damn it, she's so cold! Everytime I will kiss her, she will give in, but it will just be a kiss. After the contact, she would calmly resume to whatever she was doing when I interrupted her."

"See? Your argument still ends up with the bed thingie!" she teased. "Amazing! You are some kind of a pervert, buddy!"

He blushed hotly. "Fine!"

She paused thoughtfully. "Maybe it's not her who has a problem. I mean…maybe it is you who have a problem?"

He started to get nervous. "So what may be the problem with me?"

She shrugged. "Maybe your kisses taste like cold, frozen turkeys."

His face turned warmer. "Daidouji-san!"

"What?" she asked innocently. "It's just a 'maybe'. MAYBE."

This only made her friend sulk some more. "Damn. I wonder what Clow card can help me with my situation? Kaho says that something is holding me back everytime."

"I don't know. If you can't help yourself, no one else can," she said.

"Gee, thanks. I was really comforted by your words," he sighed, rolling his eyes again.

"Sorry. I'm a Best friend not a comfort room, so drop the sarcasm," she shrugged. "Eriol-kun, let's test your kiss."

He gaped at her. "W-What?"

"I said, let's test how you kiss," she repeated. "I'll diagnose why your kiss can't even arouse a granny."

"Kaho is not a granny!"

"Well, that's how I call women who are just years younger than my Mom," she quipped. 

"And what do you know about kiss diagnosis?" he wanted to know. "Have you ever been kissed, Daidouji Tomoyo?"

She paused, and he smiled triumphantly.

"What difference does it make?" she asked after awhile. "Just kiss me, and we'll see kung pwede bang maging memorable ang ibinigay mo sa akin."

He frowned. "No way."

"But I do brush my teeth!"

"No way."

"I use Colgate Mint!"

"Really? I mean—" He blushed hotly yet again. "NO WAY!"

Her mouth twitched. "Hmm…the guy is interested already."

"Daidouji-san…" He got up. "No. We're friends."

"And will always be," she interjected, getting up too. "Nothing will change, promise."

"That's what you think." Uncertainty flickered in his eyes, enough to make her think that the former Clow master was not that invulnerable. 

He cupped her face with his palms gently and smiled. "When Kaho and I go separate ways, I don't want you to disappear as well. You're the only one who serves as my reason for smiling. If ever I DO kiss you, and you got disgusted or disappointed, I don't want you to go away."

She laughed. "Your self-esteem is way too low. You ought to go and see our previous elementary Guidance Counselor sometimes."

He didn't laugh, so she stopped laughing too. "Sorry," she found herself saying. One of the rare times that she did ever since they bonded as classmates in Tomoeda High school.

"You are very important to me. I don't want to risk our friendship just because I'm sexually dysfunctional." With that, he turned his back on her and headed for the cottage that they were renting everytime they go here.

"Freak," she sighed. She ambled to his side. "Sorry," she said again.

"Apology accepted," he said.

Her eyebrow rose. "I'm not saying sorry. I feel sorry for you. Any man wouldn't refuse to take the offer of a woman wanting to be kissed.. It must have been really traumatic for you."

He sighed audibly. "You know, you're just hungry. Your absurdities would pass away after a good meal, especially since the menu for today is really good."

"Oh, really?" she asked mockingly. "What's the menu for today, roasted pig?"

He went along with her sarcastic charade. "No, but they have pork chop. Just right for your very own caloric inferno."

"Oh well, my metabolic system is efficient anyway," she shrugged.

"So that's why your waist line never gets past the 24 mark," he said.

"You know the size of my waist line!!!" she shrieked. "You're wearing my denim pants when I'm asleep, don't you? Confess, Hiiragizawa Eriol!"

He grinned. "Tempted, but I have not gotten around to doing it."

She laughed, just as the sea breeze blew. Her immaculate hairdo was ruined in the process. She hurriedly searched her pockets for a ribbon, but he was quick enough to gather her loose tresses and secure it on her nape with his own handkerchief.

His finger touched her chin for a moment, and she shivered. She stepped away as if she was electrocuted.

He was gazing at her tenderly, and yet his eyes couldn't conceal the burning desire in them. She immediately enjoyed that look he was giving her and committed it to her memory. The first moment that her secretly crushed-on friend looked at her as a woman…a very desirable and sexual woman.

"You know how to push a man to his limit, Tomoyo," he whispered, its huskiness lacing through her senses that suddenly came to life. "You should never look at a man—even a saint—with those kind of gazes. You'll set him to fire."

"D-Do you already need a fireman?" she asked, stammering. Her cute and witty remarks had lost their power already however, for Eriol was ignoring them already. He bridged the small gap between them with one solid step and placed his hand on her cheek. The back of the palm of his other hand caressed her chin.

She gave her last-ditch effort to break the spell. "Eriol…I'm not a Dove soap user for you to caress me like this…"

"Ssh," he said softly. "For a woman who is about to be kissed, you sure are the noisiest I've ever seen." He leaned down and touched her trembling lips with his tentatively, as if he himself was unsure of what he was doing.

She shivered involuntarily; electricity was running wildly up and down her spines. He was driving her mad with this sensation…with the anticipation. He was making her feel that she wanted something a little more with every passing second his lips pressed.

But his gentleness gave way to his passion that she felt he was just struggling to contain, but couldn't fight with anymore. Her heart exalted in Gloria. He wanted her! She turns him on!

He nudged her lower lip to open for him, and he thrusted his tongue into hers seekingly, hotly. She felt herself sway. Damn it, the world is so cruel! How could it even think of eroding her gravity just when she was starting to get the tempo of his lips' movements?

His arms came to her rescue. He pulled her closer and crushed her in his arms, which she silently was grateful for. She might ooze down the ground like melted ice cream.

However, his gravity was also not functional. They both dropped down and fell down on the sand, just as a wave crashed down on them.

The wave rushed back to sea, leaving the two of them stunned. She was on top of him, her wet hair dripping salty water droplets on his handsome face.

"Y-You know, I don't understand the taste of Teacher Kaho," she said shakily. "You don't taste anything like a cold, frozen turkey at all…"

He didn't reply, but his arms secured its hold on her waist, as if refusing to let her go.

"E-Eriol, we might drown," she said, slightly terrified not by the prospect of waves swallowing them, but of him swallowing her whole. But it gave way to excitement and anticipation, especially when his hand found its way to the back of her head, urging her to bow down and meet his lips.

"I'm drowning too…" he whispered. "Your eyes…I'm drowning in them…"

The rest of his words were cut by the wave again. When the wave receded, it was him on top of her, smiling at her cheekily.

"Now I know what is holding me back," he said. "Why I can't feel devastated when Kaho doesn't kiss me as passionately as you do."

Her cheeks flamed.

"You," he said simply, tracing her slightly swollen lips, eyes twinkling. "After what you made me do, don't expect me to lament any more about my failed relationship."

"T-That's good," she said weakly, tingling from his touch.

He grinned. "Let's go change, Daidouji-san. You might catch cold."

She barely noticed how he was able to help her up. But when he wrapped his arms around her, she snapped out of her trance.

"I think I'm in love with my best friend and her kisses," he whispered to her ear.

She laughed quietly, despite her heart's furious hammering. "You _think_?"

"Do you hate me for that?" he asked uncertainly.

She smiled at him warmly. "I think not."

"Good." He sounded relieved. And very, very pleased.

They walked back to the cottage hand-in-hand, wrapped in each other's respective thoughts.

They both had a lot of thinking to do, but the fact remains that their bond is nothing but platonic.

And that, along with the kiss, was a start, indeed.

**end**


End file.
